Raising Emotionally Strong Boys: Tools Your Son Can Build On for Life by David Thomas Book Review

 

In Raising Emotionally Strong Boys, David Thomas helps parents in understanding how boys are wired and how to raise them. He has been counseling boys for over 25 years. The book shared how men are more prone to substance abuse, suicide, infidelity, and pornography. He explained how emotionally strong boys are resourceful- able to work through emotions, aware- knows his strengths and weaknesses, resilient- ability to cope, and empathetic- able to understanding feelings. In the book, he shared how boys are more prone to physically- hitting, biting, kicking, and screaming. He discussed the importance of having a space where they can release their energy and intensity. This could be a kick stand, punching bag, stress balls, pull up bar, trampoline, yoga mat, just to name a few. Boy also struggle with showing their emotions since this is a sign of weakness. Many of them have been taught to convert their fear, sadness, and disappointment into anger. He looked at Jesus and how he was a man. He displayed compassion, humility, love, and more in the face of being tempted and betrayed. 

 

 

 

One of my favorite chapters was the one on anxiety and depression. He shared how he hates when boys tell him that they don’t know when answering a question. He shared how firstborns are more likely to experience perfectionism as a way to handle their anxiety. One of the things he teaches boys is how to properly breathe. He makes them try combat breathing for three minutes. He first instructed them not to use screen time at all and they don’t use technology at first- apple watch or apps. I think this is a wonderful thing to try. I also liked how he looked at depression. One of the most shocking things is the topic of suicide and how one man dies every minute on average. 

 

 

 

I would recommend this awesome parenting book to anyone is raising boys. He did an excellent job at exploring the emotional sides of boys and how we can navigate through anger, anxiety, depression, and much more. I immensely loved how he looked at models and mentors and how we need to make sure we identity who is in our top five circles in our son’s lives. I loved how he encouraged parents to spend time with the adult figures in their son’s lives to understand how they are influencing our kids lives- ex: coaches or youth group leaders. I also liked the topic of habits and practices and how he included tips to build new habits. 

 

 

 

 

 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Emotionally-Strong-Boys-Tools/dp/0764239988/